Frankly, I ignore most people's craptastic Mary Sue/Gary Stu OC's because they are so badly written/designed it makes me utterly sick as a long time RPer in live action and tabletop RPG's. This crap people are doing on DA and calling it Role Playing, that's childish BS compared to what I've grown up doing. And sorry to burst people's delusional bubble here, but yes, your whatever-its-name-is characters are Mary Sue/Gary Stu characters. Want to know why? The traits that define all Mary Sue/Gary Stu characters include the following:

Making a character that is a carbon copy clone of a canon character's appearance in an established fiction. Making a character that is a bastardized, masculinized, or feminized clone of a canon character's appearance in an established fiction. Making a character that has the exact same physical and/or special abilities as a canon character in an established fiction. Making a character that is more powerful than a canon character with the same powers/abilities from an established fiction. Making a character that is more powerful than any canon character from an established fiction. Making a character that is pivotal or irrevocably important to the story. Making a character that is perfect or flawless (having no flaws, fears, weaknesses, etc). Making a character that is unstoppable, unhurtable, and/or unkillable compared to the other characters in the story (canon or otherwise). Making a character that is the only key to the resolution of the conflict in the story. Making a character whose actions, marriage, or death have drastic repercussions to both sides of the conflict. Making a character whose actions, marriage, or death being the cause of the conflict ending in the story. Making a character with a bastardized, masculinized, or feminized name of a canon character from an established fiction. Making a character that is related to, mated to, or otherwise directly connected to a canon character from an established fiction. Making a character that is connected to both sides of the conflict in the story (child of someone from both sides, the child of one side and mated to someone on the other side, etc). Making a character whose strengths and weaknesses are not in balance, are contradictory, or make no comparative sense in the context of the character. Making a character whose strengths and/or weaknesses that are out of context or illogical for the character's background or design.

There is more, but these 16 traits are the main ones that scream "Mary Sue" of any given OC that people have created. The traits marked with a are glaringly blatant Mary Sue/Gary Stu traits. If your OC has any one or more of the traits marked , you've got a Mary Sue/Gary Stu character and frankly, the more of these traits your character has, the more disturbingly Mary Sue/Gary Stu the character is. You need to just scrap the character and start over from scratch. The traits marked with a are common mistakes that young fans make when creating OC's connected to an established fiction and while they are obvious Mary Sue/Gary Stu traits, they are less glaring than the ones marked by a . If your OC has any two or more of the traits marked , you've got a Mary Sue/Gary Stu character, but while the character may be a Mary Sue/Gary Stu, a little reworking to remove these traits is possible and will improve the character.

However, one flaw often mistaken for a Mary Sue/Gary Stu trait is when writers spend excessive amounts of time describing a character's appearance or certain features repeatedly in the story. This is a common flaw in young writers and easily fixable by going through the story and editing the work, reducing and/or minimizing subsequent descriptions in the story after the character's initial description is included when said character is introduced into the story. If someone is describing characters, actions, and physical features excessively, don't cry "Mary Sue/Gary Stu!" at them. Instead, give them an honest and constructive critique of the story and help them see where they can remove a few redundant and wordy descriptions to greatly improve their writing.

BREAKING NEWS: The Pity Train has just derailed at the intersection of Suck It Up & Move On, and crashed into We All Have Problems, before coming to a complete stop at Get the F**k Over It.

THIS JUST IN: The Thought Train has spectacularly derailed at the intersection of I Have An Idea and Give Me a Second, barreled through What Just Happened, then finally came to rest at Can't Remember S**t.

Text Readability ScoresA tool to give an indication of how easy text is to read, using the Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning-Fog, Coleman-Liau, SMOG and Automated Readability scoring systems. www.addedbytes.com/lab/readabi…

Okay, I have been stating for several years now that Hasbro has maintained since the creation of the Transformers in 1984 and reiterated repeatedly since then (most notably at a Botcon 2010 panel) that the Transformers are in fact GENDERLESS. Well, this Transformer Tiggy preordered the Covenant of Primus as soon as it was available to do so and it arrived at around noon-thirty on December 13th, 2013 (and as of this posting I am half way through reading it). This book is “written” from the perspective of the third of the thirteen Primes and inherently their historian, Alpha Trion, to the human friends of the Autobots. In the Forward (the third paragraph specifically), he states the following [with my personal notations and clarifications]:

“For the ease of your reading pleasure, I have translated many Cybertronian proper nouns, pronouns, and phrases into English, and into Earth-normative concepts also. In doing this, I hope that I have not caused confusion or overstepped my authority in the use of your language and customs. It has long been our habit to observe alien cultures and attempt to make ourselves intelligible to them in their own terms wherever we can, be it in physical form, language, or manner. Where a significant deviation from Cybertronian culture cannot be avoided, I shall make a note in the text.”[Cybertronian is translated to human centric terms, language, and cultural idioms, but clarified as to the actual truth of the matter where needed to avoid confusing anyone. ~ Leathurkatt]

Chapter 1 gives brief overview descriptions of all thirteen Dynasty Primes, including all of their names in creation order – Prima (Leader and first Matrix Bearer), Vector Prime (Lord of Space and Time), Alpha Trion (Historian of the Primes and Memory of Primus), Solus Prime (the Creator – Blacksmith of the Primes), Micronus Prime (First Minibot and Powermaster, the Conscience of the Primes), Alchemist Prime (Spiritualist and the Mechanist of Change), Nexus Prime (the first Combiner – 1into5, 5into1), Onyx Prime (the Beast Prime with the Tryptich Mask – the Spirit Warrior), Amalgamus Prime (Prankster and the Mechanist of Transformation), Quintus Prime (the Experimentalist and Dreamer), Liege Maximo (the Charismatic Silver-Tongued Manipulator), Megatronus (the Unstable Lord of Entropy, later becoming The Fallen and is Lord Megatron’s namesake), and “Thirteen” (the Visionary and Unifier of the Primes who’s name was removed from the Covenant and replaced with the symbol for 13 by Alpha Trion at Thirteen’s request). If you have read the Covenant and know the true identity of Thirteen, KEEP IT TO YOURSELF AND NO KIBITZING! Let others read it for themselves, okay? Now, this brings me to Solus Prime in particular, the so-called “female” Prime. After describing her on page 12, Alpha Trion (the Author of the book) goes on to clarify the facts of gender or lack thereof among Cybertronians on pages 12 and 13 [my personal notations and clarifications]:

“I note at this point for those of you who may be curious: the Primes, and later the Transformers, do not have gender in the way that humans and other biological species do. Here Solus Prime, and those who were later formed in her lineage, are referred to as “she” in order to comply with your human gender reference terms and to show a distinction that Cybertronians recognize among themselves (though other races do not).”[Yes, they are in fact a genderless race, guys. ~ Leathurkatt]

“To Cybertronians, there are two distinct “kinds” that we easily divide ourselves into, recognizing key feature differences in the manner in which information is processed. It is widely supposed among the remaining Primes that this difference was necessary for Solus herself to operate the Creation Lathe, which required a vast capacity for wide-ranging and parallel thought processing.”[As opposed to the more narrow and linear thought processing of the other 12 and their descendents. ~ Leathurkatt]

“After becoming part of a wider galactic community, we adopted the habit of using gender reference protocol when interacting with gendered alien species in order to demonstrate that we are not unfamiliar with the notions of difference and equality; we recognize our difference; we celebrate our equality.”[They have no gender biased terms in their culture or language at all and such terms or pronouns are strictly a product of their interaction with organic, gendered, intelligent races and used only when interacting with such races, like oh say, humans for example. ~ Leathurkatt]

“In early, pre-contact Cybertronian notation, however, all Primes and others are referred to by a single symbol. I note that in human terms there is a rough 1:1 ratio of male to female that does not correspond to our 1:12 distinction, and I apologize to any females of the species who may feel slighted at having their pronoun applied to the less-numerous type of Cybertronian.”[They call each other by the same term which has no gender distinction at all and the mental processing difference between them is not so relevant to them. Don’t be offended that the human term of “female” was applied to the rarer of the two and is outnumbered 12 to 1. ~ Leathurkatt]

The short version – Transformers are a purely genderless, intelligent, sentient, transforming, robotic, alien race with no gender based terms or identifiers within their culture or language, but differentiate themselves by the type of information processing within their neural cores – Broad and Parallel vs Narrow and Linear, not feminine vs masculine. They refer to each other by a single “symbol” or term and display equality among themselves rather than actually singling out their differences the way humans do. The only time they use gender based terminology is when interacting with organic races with gender biased cultures and language, like humans. There is no such thing as Male, Female, Gay, Straight, etc in Cybertronian language and culture, period.

In other words, I was mostly right all along; the part where I was wrong – I stated that apparent gender was strictly an apparition of their personality. The fact is that Transformers have no gender at all, not even mentally. What we perceive is nothing more than their attempts to make themselves relatable and understandable to US. Now it is rendered as official, In-Character, Transformers Canon by Hasbro themselves and removes all debate and speculation on the subject. Sorry guys, but you can’t argue with set established canon, and it states in blue text on the back of the box itself that “After 30 years of Transformers storytelling, here at last is the complete volume that ties together all the lore surrounding Cybertron.” IE – that what is in the book applies to ALL continuities over the last 30 years as well as those yet to come, including the genderless robots distinction that has been maintained since day one by Hasbro.

So don’t argue with me about Transformers and gender simply because your human egocentric mind is not capable of understanding or accepting the fact that a sentient race of ROBOTS simply do not have gender or sexuality of any kind while you insist on writing about and/or drawing them with human sexual and reproductive parts (which they do not have because, gee, they are ROBOTS) for your own human egocentric sexual fantasies. **facepalms**

Spark Melding and/or Pair Bonding in some form, however, has been Canon since G1 and was explicitly shown or described in several continuities over the past thirty years. It is a Spiritual Life Force connection, guys, not a sexual one. There IS a difference.

~>End Transmission<~

@}~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~{@

Leathurkatt Feathurpaws

Music is Life ♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪ Life is Music

♂+♂= ♂+♀= ♀+♀= Love is and Love is Sacred

"If you run, you'll only die tired!"

"My mind's not twisted. It just has dangerous curves."

"If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you."

"Be alert! The world needs more lerts."

BREAKING NEWS: The Pity Train has just derailed at the intersection of Suck It Up & Move On, and crashed into We All Have Problems, before coming to a complete stop at Get the F**k Over It.

THIS JUST IN: The Thought Train has spectacularly derailed at the intersection of I Have An Idea and Give Me a Second, barreled through What Just Happened, then finally came to rest at Can't Remember S**t.

Text Readability ScoresA tool to give an indication of how easy text is to read, using the Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning-Fog, Coleman-Liau, SMOG and Automated Readability scoring systems. www.addedbytes.com/lab/readabi…

Can it be spelled out any more clearly to you lot? Add to that the fact that the Ten Commandments were stolen directly from the Egyptian Book of the Dead (I have not stolen, I have not killed, I have not lied, etc). It's all just a bad plagiarism of other people's religion which has then been used to control the populace through fear! >.< And people wonder why I walked away from Christianity.

~>End Transmission<~

@}~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~{@

Leathurkatt Feathurpaws

Music is Life ♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪ Life is Music

♂+♂= ♂+♀= ♀+♀= Love is and Love is Sacred

"If you run, you'll only die tired!"

"My mind's not twisted. It just has dangerous curves."

"If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you."

"Be alert! The world needs more lerts."

BREAKING NEWS: The Pity Train has just derailed at the intersection of Suck It Up & Move On, and crashed into We All Have Problems, before coming to a complete stop at Get the F**k Over It.

THIS JUST IN: The Thought Train has spectacularly derailed at the intersection of I Have An Idea and Give Me a Second, barreled through What Just Happened, then finally came to rest at Can't Remember S**t.

Text Readability ScoresA tool to give an indication of how easy text is to read, using the Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning-Fog, Coleman-Liau, SMOG and Automated Readability scoring systems. www.addedbytes.com/lab/readabi…

Well now, it seems that a lot of people on DA, and across the internet for that matter, have a huge misconception about what Role Playing actually is, let alone the fact that they have no idea how to do it properly. Most of those who are clueless are children (under 18) who not only have no idea what they are doing, but also clearly had no proper instruction, or very bad instruction, on how to Role Play correctly, let alone proper Role Play etiquette. The rest of the clueless ones that are actually adults are one of four things: generally ignorant and need proper instruction, received bad instruction on how to RP, are arrogant jerks who think they are the center of the RP, or are drama queens seeking attention and will throw a childish tantrum if they don't get their way.

Me, I usually like to give people the benefit of the doubt and try to give them proper instructions on how to RP correctly. As a lifetime RPer, from Live Action ReCreationism Role Play, to COStume PLAY, to Live Action Role Play, Table Top Role Paying Games, and on line forum, list, and chat Role Playing, I have extensive experience on how to Role Play correctly. To that end, I am posting this journal as a guideline for real and serious RPers, including RP Etiquette and Rules that true RPers follow. These are not my personal rules, these are rules and etiquette established before I was born by the father of all Role Playing Games, Gary Gygax himself, used in every RPG ever made since his own game, Dungeons & Dragons, was released in 1974, the year I was born, and have adapted to what you see below as On Line Role Playing has developed from traditional Table Top RPGs.

Role Play Posting Etiquette – Spamming the RP is not acceptable. Spamming an RP and posting more than once without waiting for anyone else to reply is liable to earn you nothing less than being shut out from the RP. God-Modding is unacceptable. Every character can take hits, every character can take damage, and every character can be killed. Please conduct yourself accordingly and do not have your characters super powerful, have god-like abilities, or dodging every hit. God Modding is liable to earn you nothing less than being shut out from the RP. Power playing is not acceptable. Playing another person's character without permission will not be allowed. If necessary, confer with the other character's RPer to negotiate combined actions for posts, or imply your character's intention and follow up action if their intent succeeds. Power Playing is liable to earn you nothing less than being shut out from the RP. Character killing is not acceptable. There will be absolutely no character killing permitted in the RP without prior negotiations with that character's RPer first! There will be no exceptions! Killing someone else's character without consent or permission is liable to earn you nothing less than being shut out from the RP. No short one liner posts! Be creative! Get into the spirit of things and let people read your character's thoughts and feelings, some inspiration and motivation for your character, anything, just make it interesting. Typing a one word or short one sentence reply to a full and detailed RP post gets annoying fast. While there is no word count minimum, the general rule of thumb is "try for at least 50-100 words." If you end up typing a one thousand word post, that's perfectly okay too! Be realistic with your posts. If your character is hit, give them appropriate damage to the hit. For example – In a Transformers based RP, if your character is human and Megatron shoots him with his fusion cannon, I'm sorry but your character is dead. If a Transformer is hit with a blast from that same cannon, he is going to be hurting. Be realistic and have fun with it. There is something called spell check, please use it. Please use proper spelling and grammar with your posts, and proofread them! It is very hard to read posts with spelling and grammar errors, misplaced words, or missing words, in an RP post. Please be kind to the other RPers and at least type like you paid attention in English class at school. Absolutely no 1337 Speak, Chat Speak, LOL Speak, Internet Slang, Text Speak, or Text Short Hand will be allowed in any RP posts! We do not want to see it anywhere on the boards and repeated use of it in the RP is liable to earn you nothing less than being shut out from the RP. One-Upmanship: Just don't do it. Pulling the "Yeah, and my character can do this" attitude and continually trying to One-Up other people's characters makes the rest of us want to either not RP with you or leave the site entirely. It is as immature as God Modding and refusing to let your characters be damaged by enemy fire. JUST DON'T DO IT! Keep personal Drama out of the RP! If you have an issue between you and another RPer, take it to Private Chat. Drama Baiting and Drama Mongering in public view drives away established members of the RP as well as new or potential members. If you have Real Life issues that are preventing you from posting promptly, politely excuse yourself from the RP. If you are simply having a bad day/week/whatever, do not take it out on others. While many do offer sympathy to those who are having an especially hard time, airing one's dirty laundry continuously is rude and annoying. It is also considered drama queen attention seeking and is liable to earn you nothing less than being shut out from the RP and likely cause others to turn away and ignore you.

Ratings – Keep the posts and storylines to PG-13 rating! This means you do not go into graphic detail of your characters sexual escapades. Use common sense and "Fade to Black" if such things do occur in the RP. As for battle scenes, while it is okay to describe injuries and damage, try to not be too grotesquely graphic. Going into morbid detail about internal organs hanging out and how much blood is gushing from a wound is unnecessary.

Abusive Language and Sexual Harassment – Abuse and harassment of other RPers will not be tolerated. If you are found to be committing such acts, you will be subject to nothing less than being shut out from the RP, and possibly being reported to the authorities, especially with regard to any sexual harassment.

Theft – Do not copy or steal another person's work! Meaning writing, poems, songs, art, anything someone else made and you claim as your own is considered theft. The exceptions to this are things like using official character images for Icons and Signature images for canon characters, as well as canon information for character bios. While it looks cool or may be well written, always credit your sources! You may have created the compiled images and bio for the character, but the pictures and information you used were not created by you. If the bio is for a canon character, do the research and write it yourself, do not steal one written by someone else. If the character is an OC, do not steal someone else's character, images, or information.

Creating Your Character – When bringing in a character (canon or original) into an established RP, go by the character bio template provided when making your PC (Permanent Character) and follow how it is to be filled out. Often on RP sites and forums, character bios are required to be posted with that character's account. The ONLY character bios posted on such sites and forums are for the RP. DO NOT post character bios for fan fics or from other RPs off site as it causes confusion and misunderstandings they would rather avoid.

Member and Character Account Names – To avoid confusion and potential issues with other RPers, especially on an RP site or forum, DO NOT use Character names for your Member Account, especially Canon Character names. This creates confusion and can potentially create hard feelings where none were intended when people start using Canon Character names for their Member Account names and someone is already playing that character. Also, do not use names for Member or Character Accounts that are offensive to others, especially derogatory terms. If you are unsure if a name is offensive or derogatory, it's best not to use it. Such offensive and abusive names will only earn you the label of "Troll" and cause you to be banned from the RP in question.

I have taught quite a few people how to properly conduct themselves in various Role Playing venues (note that Cosplay is not actually Role Play, it is strictly playing dress-up in costumes like Halloween, thus its name – Costume Play or Cosplay). I have run campaigns and built campaign worlds, as well as created quite a few detailed and well fleshed out characters for various Worlds, Universes, and Fandoms, including Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Gamma World, Marvel Universe, Battle Tech, Vampire the Masquerade, Werewolf the Apocalypse, Rifts, Society for Creative Anachronism, Star Trek, Star Wars, Transformers, and others. I am also a natural researcher and innate organizer, much to the delight and occasional dismay of some of my friends. **smirks and winks at Catalyst** So I have quite a lot of knowledge and experience in this sort of thing.

Now, do note that this account is my Personal Art Account, not an RP account. I RP on established RP sites, forums, and lists, not willy nilly random on an ART site. Some would argue that Role Playing is an art form, and normally I would agree with that. However, this particular "Art Form" does not belong on DA; though the posting of RP character bios on Deviant Art and posting stories that result from RPs (in story form, not in RP posting form, and only with permission and full credit to all involved in the writing of said RP story) on Deviant Art is perfectly reasonable and I would not argue against such postings. But actual RPing in chat and comments on Deviant Art is tedious, lawless, uncontainable, uncontrollable, and frankly pointless. The reason I say this is because with trying to have an RP on DA, you can't establish set rules, timeline, or storyline and plots for the RP to follow, you can't limit who sees the RP, you can't keep random people from coming in and crashing the RP, and you can't keep someone from trying to take over the RP. This is why RPing simply does not belong on DA, though doing so is not strictly against DA rules. RPing belongs on closed and controlled sites and forums set up for that very purpose so established staff members can oversee and maintain the RP, set up rules and protocol, storyline, plot lines, and story timeline for the RP, control membership and board access, and remove troublemakers from the boards.

While I can see having a personal art account and a professional art account on Deviant Art (to keep your private and professional works separated), any more than that is just ridiculous. Having multiple RP accounts on DA is honestly pointless since Deviant Art is not an appropriate place for RPing. Also, having multiple separate accounts for each hobby or whatever you're into on DA is beyond pointless when you can so much more easily make multiple folders in your gallery to post your varied interests and hobbies in. Also, making accounts to pretend you're someone else or for trolling and harassing someone is just childish and stupid, as is lying and deceiving others for whatever reason. There is nothing that will validate or excuse such idiotic behavior as far as I'm concerned.

And to those of you who believe this is a personal attack against certain individuals (including yourselves) who clearly have poor RP skills or who insist upon having multiple accounts on DA, it is not. This is a general resource and information journal for anyone to utilize to improve themselves, like any other such journal I have posted. However, I do know there are those who will take this as a personal attack against them, and honestly, if they are so insecure, petty, and vain as to believe that, that's their problem and I frankly don't care. I have better things to do with my time than to post personal attacks against people on the internet. Openly laughing at someone's inept stupidity however, is another story. **chuckles**

BREAKING NEWS: The Pity Train has just derailed at the intersection of Suck It Up & Move On, and crashed into We All Have Problems, before coming to a complete stop at Get the F**k Over It.

THIS JUST IN: The Thought Train has spectacularly derailed at the intersection of I Have An Idea and Give Me a Second, barreled through What Just Happened, then finally came to rest at Can't Remember S**t.

Text Readability ScoresA tool to give an indication of how easy text is to read, using the Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning-Fog, Coleman-Liau, SMOG and Automated Readability scoring systems. www.addedbytes.com/lab/readabi…

EDIT 3: If you want to know how to identify bootleg ripoff fake DVDs from legitimate licensed DVDs, I posted a journal here that provides links to resources that will help you in identifying the bootlegs. leathurkatt.deviantart.com/jou…

EDIT 1: Thank you to for this info: Another red flag that ensures 100% positive that a DVD is a bootleg ripoff - Region 0. Only personal DVDR's make those, not companies, ergo, it's stolen property. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_regi…

DVD and Blu-ray Region EncodingGlobal region codes identify specific DVDs and Blu-ray discs that are compatible with the players typically sold in that region. The majority of all current titles play in only one specific region unless otherwise noted.

I am posting this as a warning to all Transformers fans on my watch list. I have received confirmation directly from Hasbro through a reliable contact that the DVD pictured above is a 3rd party bootleg ripoff, ergo stolen and not a legitimate product. The photos were taken from an Ebay seller here --> www.ebay.com/itm/DVD-TRANSFORM…and the company distributing it is here --> animelv.com/index.php?searchwo…

It is being made in and sold from Malaysia and is not a licensed product. My ONLY reason for posting the photos in my scraps is to warn others not to purchase this DVD. Here are all the bootleg copies being sold on Ebay so far, please help report these stolen products to Ebay as bootleg merchandise. If you find one that is not listed, please let me know so I can add it to the list and help by reporting all listings selling these bootleg ripoffs.:

DO NOT BUY FROM THEM! THEY ARE SELLING BOOTLEG PRODUCTS, STOLEN MERCHANDISE! By buying these bootleg DVD's you are receiving stolen property which is punishable by law. I found out about it only because someone posted the exact same photo of the front cover in the group , of which I am a member. I researched the photo trying to find out if it was actually a legitimate product and found that you can only get it on Ebay or through the distributor linked above. After sending the information to a friend with connections to Hasbro, I received confirmation that these are in fact 3rd party bootleg ripoffs. Legitimate copies will look like the US release and have the 5 part Darkness Rising and have all the relevant logos on them: Hasbro, The Hub, and/or Takara Tomy. As far as I understand it, the only companies I know of who have legitimate distribution rights for Hasbro/Takara (besides Hasbro Studios) shows are "Kid Rhino/WEA", "Shout! Factory", and "Vivendi Entertainment" through Shout! Factory (outside of Paramount and the live movies of course). In Australia, "Madman Entertainment" holds the distribution license. If you want to know what the legitimate US release looks like, I have photos of it in the thumbnail below.

For those who think the DVD is from Japan: It's a bootleg from Malaysia! All of the listings say the menu is in Chinese, the subtitles are in English and Chinese, and that it is produced/authorized in Malaysia. The "Asian Characters" are even Chinese! How does anyone get Japan from that? Sorry, but Malaysia is NOT in Japan! Malaysia is South of India with Singapore just South of Malaysia. Japan is east of Korea. Malaysia and Japan are about as far from each other as Canada is from Mexico. Google map search it, duh! g.co/maps/bme4t

Yes, I took and reposted the photos of the bootleg DVD, but I admitted they are not mine, I linked to where I got them, and I did so in order to show people what the bootleg ripoff looks like. Nothing more. I NEVER took credit for them, nor did I claim them as mine. As for my "connection to Hasbro", yes I do in fact know people directly connected to Hasbro. I will not reveal them because I do not want people harassing them, though I know people are going to call me a liar if I don't reveal my sources. If my sources and connections wish to reveal themselves, it is their choice. I know how to keep a confidence. Duh. I was not born yesterday, and I do my research.

It makes me sick that these thieves are selling not just Transformers Prime, but 8 other Transformers titles and who knows what other Hasbro or Takara property they have stolen. This is why I am putting the word out to others not to buy these bootleg DVD's. Support the companies that brought to life the characters we love, not some thief hiding in another country.

Transformers: Prime Japan Volume 6 and 7 are out but not on Amazon as yet, I will update the image and list as soon as it and future releases are available. You can also get them here --> www.cdbanq.com/search.asp?keyw…

~>End Transmission<~

@}~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~{@

Leathurkatt Feathurpaws

Music is Life ♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪ Life is Music

♂+♂= ♂+♀= ♀+♀= Love is and Love is Sacred

"If you run, you'll only die tired!"

"My mind's not twisted. It just has dangerous curves."

"If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you."

"Be alert! The world needs more lerts."

BREAKING NEWS: The Pity Train has just derailed at the intersection of Suck It Up & Move On, and crashed into We All Have Problems, before coming to a complete stop at Get the F**k Over It.

THIS JUST IN: The Thought Train has spectacularly derailed at the intersection of I Have An Idea and Give Me a Second, barreled through What Just Happened, then finally came to rest at Can't Remember S**t.

Text Readability ScoresA tool to give an indication of how easy text is to read, using the Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning-Fog, Coleman-Liau, SMOG and Automated Readability scoring systems. www.addedbytes.com/lab/readabi…

EDITWell, things are being pushed back a bit for two reasons:1. I'm being told I need MORE responses from fans to add to the book, so please spread the word and if you haven't sent me yours yet, please do so.2. As I am self publishing, I need to purchase the ISBN ($100) to get the ball rolling and get the book available globally through Amazon.com and Barns n Noble.com, as well as in a registry for brick-and-mortar stores to pick up my book and sell it. So it's going to take a little time to pull the funds together.

The book itself is finished, save for more responses from fans. Once I have what I need and the book is in publication, I will post a photo of the book itself with links to where you can purchase it. All moneys earned from the sale of this book will go towards publishing future novels and other books.

The idea has evolved into a project I wish to do for TF fans world wide. Even my 62 year old mother got in on it and I introduced her to Transformers. Just goes to show you are never too old for Giant Sentient Transforming Alien Robots! **chuckles** Please read and if you wish to be a part of it, kindly respond with your answers to the questions below. Note that if you do send me your responses, you are granting me exclusive royalty free permission to include your answers in the book. As a thank you, you will be getting a signed copy of the book and I will contact you privately for your shipping address once the book is printed. Printing is tentatively slated for January/February 2014, pending any complications. Thank you guys.

As a lifetime Transformers fan since childhood, I of course have my own story to tell about Transformers and how it has affected my own life. Some of my watchers and friends already know some of my story, but to be honest, I have been curious about your stories. This curiosity comes in no small part from the fact that so many of the voice actors from the G1 series died never knowing how deeply loved and cherished their characters really were to kids all over the world. This is a very sad thing to me, and I honestly wish there was a way those letters written nearly 30 years ago by wide eyed children all over the world could be found again and given the care and attention they deserve, if only to let the actors read them for themselves. While some of the actors have heard from a few of those children, many of whom are now grown up and have children of their own, but so many of them are unable to offer their stories to the voice actors who breathed life into our favourite characters because they can't go to events like Botcon, TFCon, AutoAssembly, and ComicCon and such opportunities are too far out of their reach, either by distance or financial constraints.

Thus, I thought perhaps the next best thing could be offered to both fans and voice actors alike: a collection of words from the hearts of fans all over the world who want to tell their own Transformers story. Then, pending enough favorable responses to the idea, I could include them in a potential book I would like to write; "Transformers - From The Heart, To the Spark." So, I chose a few questions that I felt would sum up the most important points for most Transformers fans world wide in the hopes that perhaps the voice actors who yet remain with us can see for themselves just how much they and the characters they brought to life mean to all of us.

What I need from all of you is to fill in the information below and post it as either a comment to this journal or send it in a note to me. The questions are self explanatory, and the top line is to help me sort the responses by country of origin (and by area for larger countries like the US, Canada, Mexico, Russia, China, and Australia) and to give a name to each fan without giving too much personal information as well as alphabetizing them within their location group. Typically this is done by listing only the first name (or nickname) and the first letter of the last name, then the state/province and country of where the person is (city is optional). If the relevant information is given, all responses will be collected by me, sorted into groups, and prepared for the book. If you want to expand on your story, feel free. The more detailed info you can give in your answers the better, but please proofread your responses before you send them to me. My goal is to include as many fans as possible in the book.

This is not just for us fans, this is not just for the voice actors. This is for all of us, fans and voice actors alike, for those still living as well as for the ones who have gone to where all are One. May we all meet again in the arms of Primus.

First Name Last Initial, City (optional), State/Province, Country1. How did Transformers enter your life?2. What is your favourite Transformers series and why?3. What is your favourite episode/issue from that series and why?4. Who is your #1 favourite Transformers character and why?5. If you were a Transformer, what faction would you choose (Autobot or Decepticon) and why, what would you chose for your alternate/vehicle mode (include color), and what position or job would you be in (other than leader) and why?6. If you could meet any of the Transformers voice actors, who would you most want to meet and what would you say to him or her?7. How has Transformers influenced your life?8. Are there any important life lessons you learned from Transformers? If so, what were they?

Or... You can simply tell your story of how Transformers came into your life and what Transformers means to you. Everyone has a story to tell, so what's yours?

Response Count Current Total: 41The more the merrier! XD

Please Note: For those who are wondering, the reason I am hiding the comments containing people's responses to the questions above is so I can keep track of which ones I have saved on my computer. That way I won't accidentally duplicate them or forget anyone's reply. **smiles** Thank you so much for participating and I sincerely hope to get enough responses to be able to publish this for everyone.

~>End Transmission<~

@}~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~{@

Leathurkatt Feathurpaws

Music is Life ♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪ Life is Music

♂+♂= ♂+♀= ♀+♀= Love is and Love is Sacred

"If you run, you'll only die tired!"

"My mind's not twisted. It just has dangerous curves."

"If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you."

"Be alert! The world needs more lerts."

BREAKING NEWS: The Pity Train has just derailed at the intersection of Suck It Up & Move On, and crashed into We All Have Problems, before coming to a complete stop at Get the F**k Over It.

THIS JUST IN: The Thought Train has spectacularly derailed at the intersection of I Have An Idea and Give Me a Second, barreled through What Just Happened, then finally came to rest at Can't Remember S**t.

Text Readability ScoresA tool to give an indication of how easy text is to read, using the Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning-Fog, Coleman-Liau, SMOG and Automated Readability scoring systems. www.addedbytes.com/lab/readabi…

(IRL)Uhh, so I kinda don't understand that though I only friended her and didn't know her at all, she started noting me telling me that Bonita was all this stuff. But I know for a fact I have seen proof and I have known her longer than her, she isn't like this. And to those of you who will post rude comments on this Journal will be marked as spam and possibly blocked. I'm not being immature, but I am tired of this nonsense because she has also done this to several other friends of mine and Bonita's. I posted this cause I'm tired of her saying things that are untrue.

Again I will say that I know for a fact that Bonita isn't like this at all and when I friended she noted me without me saying a word to her at all and started talking bad about her and saying a lot of untrue things. Bonita told me what she did truthfully and had apologized for what she did. I wanted to be Ravette's friend but after this i don't see why i should if she does this, sorry to say I'm not hating on her I just don't know why she did this. Bonita told me Ravette said she was going to drop this and hasn't.

All too often people take their anonymity for granted, posting their real identity on line for all to see. But then so many believe they are protected from the wrongdoings of others, that they think they are safe, even when they do post personal information. Yet what would you believe of what they post about themselves? For example, what would you believe of me? Would you believe I'm a 44 year old man from Florida? Would you believe I'm a 39 year old woman from Idaho? Would you believe I'm a 35 year old man from Wisconsin? Would you believe I'm a 27 year old woman from New Jersey? Would you believe I'm a 22 year old man from California? Would you believe I'm a 15 year old girl from Oklahoma? Would you believe any of those at all or would you assume that none of them were the truth because I specifically listed them? Then there are names. Is my name Kathy Armstrong? What about David Buchanan? Or perhaps is it Andrea Smythe? Or maybe even Robert Cole? Or is my name something else entirely? You don't know because I choose not to tell you, and those who may know are sworn to secrecy about my name and whether they know what it is.

Thus is the prize and the curse of anonymity - no one knows the truth so they assume that you are either lying or that you may be telling the truth. You only know that which people are willing to tell you and just by courtesy you have to believe they are telling the truth until you are given definitive proof to the contrary. But then there are those who have been caught in lies and thus are required to prove their claims lest no one believe them. Whether they know your identity or not, the name you use among others holds the shroud of your reputation, and as such your actions dictate your reputation among others, no matter what words, true or false, are said of you.

Ah yes, then there are those who spread rumors and false hoods of others, those who desire attention and feed on drama while making others suffer for their amusement. These people very quickly reveal themselves for what they truly are, and the intelligent among us see their true colors and reject their lies. But unfortunately they also feed on the innocent and trusting, believing them stupid and easily swayed when the truth is these poor victims of spite simply try to see the good in others rather than living their lives jaded and mistrusting of others.

I will say this of myself: Those who truly know me know that I am bluntly honest and at times aggressively straight forward. I seek the truth in what's around me and when a question comes to mind I seek the answer like a hunter stalking prey until I find the truth. I am also one who cares for others and can be generous to my own detriment, though I have grown careful with whom I am generous. And when I love someone, it is with all that I am. I do not lie to them, I do not cheat on or betray them, I do not steal from them, and I do not strike them in anger. These are things I ask in return, though sadly few are ever willing to give it. Thus I have a few friends whom I consider family, acquaintances I know and trust to varying degrees, but no mate and for my requirements of one, I do not expect to be courted. Of course, it does not matter if one is friend, family, acquaintance, or mate, my requirements are the same: do not lie to me, do not steal from me, do not betray me (includes cheating in the case of a mate), and do not hit me. Violate any of those and you will be removed from my life. It is sad that so few are willing to abide by such simple and straight forward rules. Are there really so few truly honest people in the world?

~>End Transmission<~

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Leathurkatt Feathurpaws

Music is Life ♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪ Life is Music

♂+♂= ♂+♀= ♀+♀= Love is and Love is Sacred

"If you run, you'll only die tired!"

"My mind's not twisted. It just has dangerous curves."

"If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you."

"Be alert! The world needs more lerts."

BREAKING NEWS: The Pity Train has just derailed at the intersection of Suck It Up & Move On, and crashed into We All Have Problems, before coming to a complete stop at Get the F**k Over It.

THIS JUST IN: The Thought Train has spectacularly derailed at the intersection of I Have An Idea and Give Me a Second, barreled through What Just Happened, then finally came to rest at Can't Remember S**t.

Text Readability ScoresA tool to give an indication of how easy text is to read, using the Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning-Fog, Coleman-Liau, SMOG and Automated Readability scoring systems. www.addedbytes.com/lab/readabi…

You know, I've been involved with quite a number of fandoms for quite a long time. One thing I see time and again is what is universally referred to as "Rule #34", which is the rule that states "If it exists there IS porn of it." Well, sure fine whatever. I'm not into porn, but whatever floats your boat I guess. There are more than a few "Rule #34" applications that I personally find disturbing, to say the least.

However, this also brings me to the whole "Slash" thing, whether it's fics, art, whatever. There seems to be a number of people who actually do not understand what the actual definition of "Slash" really is. Well, I'll make it very straight forward and to the point:Slash = any fan story/art containing a pairing between same-sex (usually male/male) canon characters.FemSlash = any fan Slash story/art containing a pairing between female/female only canon characters.OCSlash = any fan story/art containing a pairing between same-sex characters where one is a canon character and one is an OC. (This is a newer definition I stumbled across recently.)CrossoverSlash or XSlash = any fan story/art containing a pairing between same-sex characters from different universes/fandoms. (This is a newer definition I stumbled across recently.)

In all cases it includes strictly same sex pairings and one or both must be canon fandom characters. If both characters are OC's to a fandom, but are still the same gender, then it is simply a homoerotica fanfic or OC fic. If the characters are of opposing genders, whether canon or OC, it is not Slash, it is simply "fan pairings" or fanfics. There is no such thing as "HetSlash" as Slash is strictly same sex fan pairings by definition. If the characters and the world/universe they reside in are original, then it is simply a work of original fiction. If the pairings are canon, whether they are same gender or opposing gender, then it is not Slash, but simply a canon pairing.

The point is, non-canon pairings does NOT equal Slash. For it to be Slash, the characters involved MUST be the same gender and at least one (though typically both) must be a canon character and the pairing must be non-canon. Personally, I don't care what a person's made up "this is my definition" thing is, the above is multi-decade multi-fandom established definitions. The definition of Slash actually seems to originate with Star Trek fan writers writing Kirk/Spock fics. oddly enough.

Don't go arbitrarily changing things to suit your personal sensibilities, thanks. Doing so is the same as redefining terms like claiming that a Table is not "a form of furniture with a flat and satisfactory horizontal upper surface used to support objects of interest" but that a Table is "a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers". And yes, I am using an example of the ridiculous to illustrate my point. Slash is, by definition, a fan pairing of characters of the same gender that are not a canon pairing. Accept it, get over it, and move on.

~>End Transmission<~

@}~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~{@

Leathurkatt Feathurpaws

Music is Life ♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪ Life is Music

♂+♂= ♂+♀= ♀+♀= Love is and Love is Sacred

"If you run, you'll only die tired!"

"My mind's not twisted. It just has dangerous curves."

"If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you."

"Be alert! The world needs more lerts."

BREAKING NEWS: The Pity Train has just derailed at the intersection of Suck It Up & Move On, and crashed into We All Have Problems, before coming to a complete stop at Get the F**k Over It.

THIS JUST IN: The Thought Train has spectacularly derailed at the intersection of I Have An Idea and Give Me a Second, barreled through What Just Happened, then finally came to rest at Can't Remember S**t.

Text Readability ScoresA tool to give an indication of how easy text is to read, using the Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning-Fog, Coleman-Liau, SMOG and Automated Readability scoring systems. www.addedbytes.com/lab/readabi…

That is indeed the question that vexes many a fan in these modern times. There are so many views regarding fan fiction - some give free reign, some are fine as long as it is non-pornographic and/or non commercial, and some are vehemently against it. While most licensed authors and copyright holders offer their opinions in as little as a sentence to as much as a paragraph, there is one who has publicly posted their views against fan fics in a long and detailed rant and why they feel this way.

What I am actually curious about is what you all feel, with regards to the authors who actively discourage or outright forbid fan derivative works as compared to those who are open to it or even encourage it, as well as why you feel as you do towards such works or the opinions thereof. I want to know how you view fan fictions (as well as fan art) and how they relate to the original works. Thus I would ask you to answer these ten questions and give your reasons for your answers. I will post my own answers in seven day's time, as well as my views on what I would permit regarding fan fictions, whether of my own works or that of others', and why I feel that way about it.

1. Is fan fiction a form of flattery or compliment to the author?2. Is fan fiction an insult to the copyright holder or a claim that they "did it wrong"?3. Does fan fiction harm the credibility or name of the copyright holder?4. Is fan fiction a violation of copyright?5. Is fan fiction the same as identity theft?6. Is fan fiction theft of intellectual property?7. Is fan fiction a bridge to learning how to write?8. Does fan fiction destroy or curb one's ability to learn to write well?9. Is fan fiction freedom of speech and creativity?10. Is forbidding fan works suppressing the creativity of others?

As always, be polite and no flaming or attacking people for their opinions. Please be civil and respect the views of others. Thank you.

EDIT: As promised, here are my answers to the ten questions I posted to you all.1. Is fan fiction a form of flattery or compliment to the author?A. I believe it can be on the grounds that the author's work has been so greatly enjoyed by the readers that they were inspired to dream and explore the world they read about even deeper, and perhaps write some of their own adventures there.

2. Is fan fiction an insult to the copyright holder or a claim that they "did it wrong"?A. Certainly not! Fan fictions by definition are the fan's answer to a "What if" question that has occured to them. That being said, perhaps the author might be inspired to take a turn at the idea and create a new story they had not thought of before within the world they created.

3. Does fan fiction harm the credibility or name of the copyright holder?A. Of course not. It is a fan fiction and thus written by a fan, not by the author. In no way does a fan created work based on an intellectual property damage the reputation or credibility of the original author. If anything, it shows that said author's works are so well written as to inspire others to explore even further, which speaks very highly of the author's ability to tell a story.

4. Is fan fiction a violation of copyright?A. Only if the fan is taking money for the fan fiction or is claiming ownership of the original work.

5. Is fan fiction the same as identity theft?A. Only if the fan is claiming to be the original author or copyright holder of the intellectual property in question.

6. Is fan fiction theft of intellectual property?A. Only if the fan is claiming ownership of said intellectual property.

7. Is fan fiction a bridge to learning how to write?A. It certainly can be. I have seen writers looking to improve their ability to write utilize fan fiction to gain an honest critique of their writing style and find encouragement to branch into original works of their own.

8. Does fan fiction destroy or curb one's ability to learn to write well?A. I do not believe so. I believe that it allows a person's imagination to see how deep the rabbit hole can go in an established world, then allow that person to create even deeper and more profound original works of their own.

9. Is fan fiction freedom of speech and creativity?A. I believe it is, how else are young readers to become mature writers if they can not explore the world someone created in directions the original author had not previously thought of or had only alluded to?

10. Is forbidding fan works suppressing the creativity of others?A. Oh, it most certainly can be. If people can not explore existing stories, what reason would they have to explore their own creativity and discover new stories within themselves?

And here are my views on what I would permit regarding fan fictions, whether of my own works or that of others', and why I feel that way about it:Fan fictions are a lot of fun, for both the original author and the fans. Whether it's exploring new adventures, digging into a character's back story, finding new treasures, or introducing new characters, a lot can be explored in fan fiction that the original author may never have thought of or had only alluded to in the actual story. Perhaps a fan fic could even inspire the author to create new stories for their readers to enjoy. Just don't claim ownership of the original story or its characters, and don't try to make money off your fan works. That's not only rude, it is also theft and copyright infringement, and all three are not tolerated.

What is not fun is reading other people's sexual fantasies. Pornography and smut are not art and have little if any artistic merit. They are simply pornography, whether photographed, drawn, or written, and it's all been done before. There's no art, no creativity, just smut. While a romantic scene or the development of a relationship can be interesting and fun to read, sex does not in any way improve a story. If you wish to write a masturbation fantasy, keep it to yourself. Do not distribute it and do not post it on line.

As for fan pairings of characters, if you have to take them out of character to create the pairing, just don't do it. If the characters are enemies or they hate each other, do not pair them together. If the characters are straight, do not put them in a gay pairing. If the characters are gay, do not put them in a straight pairing. If they have no interest in relationships, don't pair them with anyone. If they are in a relationship, do not pair them with anyone else. Crack and OOC pairings are greatly disrespectful to both the characters and the author who created them. Just don't do it. Pairings that are not canon but do keep the characters involved true to themselves are perfectly fine, however.

And regarding under aged or child-like characters, DO NOT in any way shape or form put them in a sexual or romantic pairing with ANYONE! That is called child pornography and it is not only disturbing to the creator of these characters and disgusting to other readers, it is also illegal, regardless of medium. Don't do it. Period.

BREAKING NEWS: The Pity Train has just derailed at the intersection of Suck It Up & Move On, and crashed into We All Have Problems, before coming to a complete stop at Get the F**k Over It.

THIS JUST IN: The Thought Train has spectacularly derailed at the intersection of I Have An Idea and Give Me a Second, barreled through What Just Happened, then finally came to rest at Can't Remember S**t.

Text Readability ScoresA tool to give an indication of how easy text is to read, using the Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning-Fog, Coleman-Liau, SMOG and Automated Readability scoring systems. www.addedbytes.com/lab/readabi…